SCREENSHOT SURVIVAL 20XX

Posts

LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
That building is seriously stupid looking. A building that extends up a cliff is a neat idea but I don't think you can pull it off with the default graphics.

A better idea might be having a more normal-shaped building but putting it on stilts - so part of it is sitting on a section of ground midway up the cliff, and then part of it is sticking off the edge and being held up on stilts that reach down to the bottom section.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
@Shadski- I think it would look alright without that top part building where the player enters. Everything else would probably look fine if you focus on tweaking that area. I agree with LockeZ that with the RTP it will be difficult to look right
Working on a new game.

Which style of portraits for the heroes you prefer?


LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Uh, I would probably prefer to get rid of the giant portraits. They're covering up the battlefield, and you can already see them in the status window. You don't need the same picture on the screen twice at once, that's tacky. Just put an arrow over the character whose turn it is or something.
author=LockeZ
Uh, I would probably prefer to get rid of the giant portraits. They're covering up the battlefield, and you can already see them in the status window. You don't need the same picture on the screen twice at once, that's tacky. Just put an arrow over the character whose turn it is or something.


Battlefield is largely empty, static and has players just have idle loop animation since it's turn based game. These portraits only are during the selection phase, when the actual action happens, you see it.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Honestly, neither of those look good to me. Putting the portraits in the dead center doesn't make the battlefield less static. It's more obvious you're trying to cover up a static battlefield like that.

First off, please don't obscure the enemies and actors. They are completely covered by the command window. Rearrange the UI layouts so that as little of the actors/ enemies are as covered as possible. The field itself isn't as plain as you might think. I'd much rather be able to see the actors and enemies as much as possible.

I recommend you move the command menu up towards the walls with a cropped portrait showing just the actor's from the shoulder's up. Nothing is going on there, and it doesn't obscure any elements on the field.
Thanks from the feedback guys, I was working today and was able to make a change. This also shows another character you can play as.



Changes that I did

  • Actors now have dynamic facesets that change when they take damage, attack, etc

  • Command menu items pulse and zoom when selected in a nice way (This is why attack command is partially out of the menu in the screenshot)

  • Battlefield has camera movement and zooming to better showcase action and characters

  • Menu now no longer obstructs as much.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
That's... better... but it's not quite there yet.

Still not a fan of the portrait placement. Why do you want it there, of all places? It cuts in the middle of the battlefield and blocks Maiya's sprite. What's the point of having an idle animation if the portrait is going to obscure it?

Take a look at this screenshot from Mardek RPG:


All the information you need is compacted into one location, so your eyes aren't darting around the screen to process actor's vitals, commands, and enemies. It's all in one, easy to access location. Try to position your command menu so that it doesn't get in the way of the visuals.
So, I gave in and decided to update the game's resolution to HD quality, this actually fixes the main isssue people had with the HUD.



I also finished with the character select screen.

ESBY
extreme disappointment
1238
Jesus dude.
In those two screenshots I can count 6, maybe 7, fonts. Please cut this down to one (two max) and settle on a consistent style format.
Honestly, everyone's right about not putting the images in the middle. Now that you've updated it to HD sizing, there's literally no reason not to put the command window on one side and the character portrait on the other, framing the scene, so to speak. It would look a LOT better and not make the battle appear so claustrophobic/uncomfortable.

One other issue is the flowers on the battle window. Where everything else is anti-aliased and blended, they're highly pixellated and jump out as really discordant.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Oh, I assumed those pixellated flowers were a placeholder. I mean they're obviously not meant to look like that. This seems to just be an early mock-up based on how the left edge of Maiya's name is being cut off and the HP number is an almost unreadable color and so forth, so I figured Tuomo was just asking for advice about the portrait and not the other more objective/technical problems.

If I was wrong, then in the status screen, the word Mage and the numbers 20 and 30 definitely don't need to be squished like that. Actually if possible just disable the text-squishing module in VX Ace entirely.
Punkitt
notorious rpgmaker 2k3 shill
3341

hey i made a new room in rm2k3 can i have some feedback yo
author=LockeZ
Oh, I assumed those pixellated flowers were a placeholder. I mean they're obviously not meant to look like that. This seems to just be an early mock-up based on how the left edge of Maiya's name is being cut off and the HP number is an almost unreadable color and so forth, so I figured Tuomo was just asking for advice about the portrait and not the other more objective/technical problems.

If I was wrong, then in the status screen, the word Mage and the numbers 20 and 30 definitely don't need to be squished like that. Actually if possible just disable the text-squishing module in VX Ace entirely.

Not a mockup, they're all ingame screenshots.

It's not status screen and this isn't VX Ace, I use MV nowadays. I'll probably change the font, but I'm still contemplating what font I'd like to use.

Yeah, the HP color has been annoying. I tried green but it looked bad, red looked bad too. I could probably make it blue like mana but then it could be confusing too.

I didn't even notice the name cut off like that before you pointed it out, heh. I've been working on this game way too much today.


I honestly don't like how it looks like when the bust picture is on the side.
I personally think the side portrait looks the best. You could even change the battlers to be part of the animation sequence for actions so when the portrait goes away the Sprite appears as part of the animation then it slides back to the next portrait. You can even keep the SV Battle positions that way!
Punkitt
notorious rpgmaker 2k3 shill
3341


when she wins she takes off her goggles. tada!
@Punkitt your stuff is really great, I like it.

Yeah, after playing around I did something kinda like Arc suggested and gave a slide effect to the portrait, now it works the way I like it.



I'm still unsure how to colorize the HP number though.

EDIT: I tried to add a small outline and lowered saturation, is it better now?

I'm also using this new font, I need to change some of the menus acoardingly though.


How about just white for the HP/MP numbers (with the outline)? Or maybe just a very, very light shade of those colours? It'd blend less with the actual bars at least. The blue is too much.



The font is different, but you get the idea. Frankly, I think the purple outline with white works best since it's already established as a stand-out colour in the rest of the text. In fact, it's usually best to keep these things simple because our eyes are dumb and get confused.

Also, the bar for the MP is offset badly in the bar window. Also, why not move the command box to the lower left or top left instead of having it hang around in the middle like an unwanted step-child? Hell, have it in the bottom-right and then have the portrait on top of it, since there's plenty of room with that portrait size for it to be there?


Very quick example, but a billion times better (would be much better if they were moved a bit to the right so that that annoying border weren't an issue, of course, but it gives the idea). At least this way you could move the characters over a bit to the right, have the border NOT overlapping the cool art and be able to put things in easy-to see and non-blocky places. I can't imagine how annoying that window would be when you have 4 or 5 enemies (or even 2-3 big enemies) on the field and being blocked by it.
Great suggestion for the hp Colors Liberty, I think I'll do that!

The problem with the command menu is that it's dynamic, it moves when it's the 2nd player's turn. So I have to be careful or it may actually go off screen, I'll have to play around with it.


There's not going to be 4-5 enemies. Enemies won't be super huge.

EDIT: Good news everyone! I was able to fix all the problems! I am also sure you guys are tired of seeing Maiya all the time so I am showing another character and how the command menu looks like when no magic is avaivable.



EDIT 2: And I forgot to move MP bar. D'oh.

EDIT 3: Not going to make new screenshot, here's how the fixed mana bar looks.

LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Hmm, interesting solution for the portrait placement. The HP bar is a lot more readable too.

Do make sure you find a de-pixellated version of that flower graphic that's around the corners of the battle command window.

If at all possible, get rid of the giant black puddles under the heroes...